Improvement in capped nails



C. WALSH.

Capped Nails. l N0. 143,393, Patented September30,1873...

WITNESSES; INVENTQR:

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFEIcE.

ooRnELIuS WALSH, or nEwARK, NEW JERSEY.

IMPROVEMENT IN CAPPED NAILS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent N 0. 143,393, dated September 30, 1873; application filed September 17, 1873. i

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CORNELIUS WALSH, of Newark, in the county of Essex, New Jersey, have invented an Improvement in the Mannfacture of Capped Nails, of which the following is a specification:

This invention relates, primarily, to the production of an improved finishing-nail, for use instead of certain devices which are extensively employed in trimming trunks and cheap harness. These devices are tinned nails, with disks or shells of sheet-tin through which the nails are driven, and, for finer work, finishing-nails with enlarged heads covered with thin sheet-brass. The cheaper of these devices are costly, considering their poor effect. The finer nails are expensive and their caps are easily detached, and when the caps are lost the nails are very unsightly. The present invention consists in the products of a peculiar mode of manufacture, by which tin or brass caps of any required size may be securely attached to common small-headed nails, and ornamented so as to constitute a very superior trimming device. The central portion of a disk of sheet metal is made to cover the nailhead, and is contracted beneath the same by a nipping process. Two thicknesses of the metal are thus turned under the nail-head and the cap is very securely attached. The cap is finally stamped to any desired shape. As compared with the old devices above described, the improved nail may be applied much more cheaply than the first, as the tinning of the nail may be dispensed with, and the readycapped nails can be driven with much greater rapidity, and the improved nail can be manufactured more cheaply than the old brassheaded nails, or, at least, as cheaply, while the caps are more securely attached, and are not limited in size bythe nail-heads to which they are applied, and they admit of a greater variety of ornamentation.

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a finishingnail illustrating this invention. Fig. 2 is a view of the nail proper and its cap as they appear before they are united-the nail being shown in elevation and the cap in section. Fig. 3 is a similar View, illustrating the second stage of the process. Fig. 4 is a like View of the finished nail.

Referring to the drawing, A represents a common machine-made wrought-iron nail, havits structure by the present invention. The

cap B is first struck up into hat-shape fi'om a flat disk, in order to form a central receptacle,

b, for the nailhead, as illustrated in Fig. 2. The nail-head is then introduced, and the cap is contracted beneath the same by a nipping process. A flange, c, of double the thickness of the metal, is thus formed beneath the head as means for securely attaching the cap, as illustrated in Fig. 3. The cap is now stamped into the shape illustrated in Figs. 1 and 4, or any preferred final shape.

It will be observed that the marginof the cap may be of any desired width, and may be scalloped or otherwise ornamented.

The particular form of nailAillustrated and described, is not an essential feature of the invention. A flat-headed nail may be employed.

The cap may be of any preferred shape and of any approved sheet metal. The application of the capped nail is also unlimited, as it may be adapted for various uses for which a nail with a covered or more or less extended head is required.

Soft-metal naiLcaps cast onto common smallheadednails and then stamped into ornamental shape, also sheet-metal caps attached to such nails by folding the margins of the same beneath the nail-heads, are known to be old, and are hereby disclaimed.

The following is claimed as new:

1. A nail having a sheet-metal cap attached by folding two thicknesses of the same around and beneath the nail-head, substantially as herein described.

2. A finishing-nail consisting of a common small-headed nail, A, and a sheet-metal cap, B, the latter being attached by contracting a central portion thereof in a double fold beneath the nail-head, and completed by stamping this central portion and the margin or rim of the cap into ornamental shape, substantially as herein specified.

CORNELIUS WALSH.

Witnesses:

HENRY J. MILLS, JAMES S. EDWARDS. 

